


Urðreise

by Warwick (sspsdd)



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen, Nuzlocke Challenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-18 18:05:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12393342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sspsdd/pseuds/Warwick
Summary: Gladys had hoped to start over and live a peaceful life in Alola but nearly immediately she finds herself and her beloved absol dragged into shenanigans.





	1. Chapter 1

The girl was afraid. Not for herself, she hadn’t even started to consider how running away was going to change her life. But for the pokemon she was stealing? If she were caught something bad would definitely happen to her friend. She’d seen what happened to others, to the pokemon in the tanks and freezers and… God, how could she have just accepted it so easily before?

She ran as fast as she could manage across the pristine white tile but she could hear the Aether employees right behind her. To her left and right were broad green leaves and she could hear pokemon making disgruntled hoots and chirps. The elevator was close to here.

Just as she turned a corner she saw three more people dressed in the sharp white and too clean uniform and she could hear the ones behind her catching up. A thick pain welled up in her chest as she was filled with panic and she stopped in her tracks, legs refusing to take her further. She glanced down towards the open duffel bag at her side only briefly. The tiny pokemon inside peered up at her with glowing white eyes and she could feel her heart breaking to know what was going to happen to Nebby.

 

The boy was angry. He sat on a shabby bed in the dim room of a motel as blood stained the grey sheets below him. His pokemon hadn’t meant to hurt him but that didn’t change the fact that there was another long gash in his arm, it didn’t change the pain rippling from the wound. He would bandage it up, again, and then he would sew up the holes in his shirt and then he would try to get some sleep. Just an hour or two. In the morning he would…

He didn’t know what he would do and it weighed on him. This was every day for him now. Team Skull felt like a huge waste of time; they didn’t take him seriously and they didn’t think of him as one of them but they were the only lead he had right now.

From the corner of the room Type: Null let out a low whine and stood to find somewhere more comfortable to sleep. It only took a few steps towards the bed but the boy flinched as he saw it move and it stopped in its tracks, staring out at him from under its thick metal helm. He didn’t know how much it understood or that it even knew how much he’d given up to save it. He hoped this was worth it.

 

Gladys had that dream again. The two blonde kids and the disasters around them. It wasn’t a panic that she awoke in, it was something slower and more expected like the day after you break your leg or the day off between long work days. It was a sickly sweet and too thick liquid swallowed to dull an only inconvenient sickness. When she opened her eyes there was Selena sitting at her bedside. The absol was technically her mother’s pokemon but it spent more time with Gladys than anyone else, accompanying her just about everywhere and sitting outside of any place it wasn’t allowed.

Gladys slowly sat up and looked around as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. It was night and she was still feeling the jet lag after coming all the way here from Hoenn. Somewhere in the house she could hear talking, at first she thought the TV must be on in the living room but after a few seconds she picked up her mother’s voice and quickly slid her legs over the side of the bed. She peeked out of her door and immediately spotted a strange man in the kitchen. He leaned against the counter and laughed at something her mother said, though Gladys didn’t quite catch it. A moment later he stopped and looked her way before grinning and waving. After a long moment Gladys opened the door all the way and stepped out to nod her head in greeting.

“Ah,” her mother said, turning around and smiling, “I was just telling the professor here about my lovely daughter. He wants you to come meet the island’s kahuna.”

Gladys looked both adults over as she tried to figure out of that was some kind of joke. The professor missed her entirely uninterested expression as he spoke, “Sixteen and you don’t have your own pokemon yet. The kahuna will fix that right away I’m sure.”

She shot one last pained look at her mother but it went completely ignored. After being rushed off to her room to find her bag and put shoes on she was out the door.

“Be careful!” her mother called after her.

“And take care,” Gladys replied, words she’d said hundreds of times over the past few years. Selena followed closely behind, nearly tripping the professor as she pushed between his legs to get outside.

The trip, thankfully short, was filled with silence only broken when Kukui commented on how nice Alola was and how much Gladys was going to love having her own pokemon. In all fairness it was nice from what she’d seen, the sky was just as clear as it was in Hoenn and there were more flowers here. The small town they came to, Iki Town the professor called it, was quaint and made mostly of a large wooden platform and a few small houses. It was cute.

As Gladys looked over the immediate area and Kukui continued on about something - cocoa was the only word she caught - her eyes came to rest on an opening between the trees and she felt a little sick. Selena didn’t seem too pleased either as she pressed against Gladys’ leg and her tail whipped back and forth in what she’d learned over the years to be nervousness.

Without a word she quickly headed towards the trees. If she’d learned anything over the years it was to follow her very bad no good feelings. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen but she knew she needed to get to that trail right now. The professor called out and she turned her head only enough to tell him she’d be back in a second.

And then Gladys saw her. The girl, glowing like moonlight in a white dress and large brimmed hat, was struggling with something in a bag. Before she could call out the girl walked in between the trees and vanished. Selena took off after her. Gladys was right behind though she was slow, running was definitely not something she did often.

Through the trees was a trail with wooden steps that led up a steep hill, light filtering down from the moon through broad palm leaves. She couldn’t see her pokemon or the girl anywhere, but there was only one way to go and that was up. As she passed stone statues carved to look only vaguely humanoid she had another pang of distress and quickened her pace as she nearly tripped over her own feet to rush up the stairs.

She reached the top just in time to see the girl rushing after something and Selena right behind her. As everything came into view she could see some kind of pokemon on a long wooden bridge suspended by rope and Selena beginning to cross it. A loud screech echoed through the area, bouncing off the cliffs below, and Gladys looked around to see a cloud of feathers and talons descending from above and heading straight for the pokemon.

Without a second thought Gladys sprinted to the bridge as she called out for Selena. The absol turned its head to look back, stopping in its tracks as the bridge wobbled from the added weight.

“Don’t just stand there,” Gladys said as she moved closer, “Blast them.”

Selena wasted no time as she turned back to the swarm of angry bird pokemon and only seconds later let out a freezing cold blast of ice shards. They dispersed in a screeching panic as Gladys finally reached the pokemon that was being menaced, a cloud full of stars that she’d never seen before, and she bent down to see if it was okay.

As she reached her hand forward she felt sick yet again, her stomach lurching forward suddenly, and her head snapped up to look around. It took her too long to realize that she was lurching physically as the old bridge gave way beneath her and she began to fall. She instinctively reached out to grab hold of the pokemon as they fell towards the rushing water below and somewhere above Selena cried out, a loud yip cutting through the otherwise quiet night.

Gladys squeezed her eyes shut and prepared for the impact against the ice cold water. When it didn’t come she slowly breathed in, wondering if she’d somehow died before even hitting the river. As she opened her eyes she realized she was, in fact, on the ground. She slowly let go of the pokemon and it rushed away from her. In front of her was the girl and before her was… a pokemon, maybe? The yellow and orange creature was roughly human shaped and sized but it had to be some kind of Pokemon. It let out a shrill cry and jumped away and before Gladys could say anything she felt something heavy pressing against her back. She turned to pat Selena on the head before standing and looking, somewhat bewildered, at the girl.

“Thank goodness,” the girl said at last, bending down to pick up her pokemon, “I was so worried. If something happened to Nebby I don’t know what I’d do.”

Gladys stood awkwardly for a few seconds before looking away. The right words were hard, she couldn’t just tell this girl she’d been dreaming about her. That wouldn’t come off right at all.

“Who are you?” was all she could manage.

The girl shook her head and after a moment said, “Please don’t tell anyone about this… About seeing Nebby. It’s… it’s a secret, okay?”

Gladys didn’t know what to say to that. She rubbed Selena’s head as the girl put her pokemon back in her bag and began to leave.

“Um,” the girl said, turning around with a frown on her face as she gripped at the strap of her bag with both hands, “I know I don’t have any right to ask this but could you walk me back to town? I don’t want to get attacked on the way there…”

Gladys quickly nodded her head and Selena trotted on forward as if they hadn’t been in dire peril very recently. The girl followed after her but turned to look over her shoulder as she walked, “This is your pokemon then? It’s a, um. An absol?”

“I. Yeah,” Gladys stammered as she followed behind, “Her name’s Selena, she’s. She’s good.”

“I see,” was all the girl replied with before looking away to watch where they were going.

God. She felt dumb. She went over all the things she could say as they walked down the hill, down each wooden step embedded in the packed dirt, but in the end she couldn’t think of anything she could ask the girl that wouldn’t just be weird. She didn’t want to make this weird, mystery dream girl seemed nice and, like most people, wouldn’t really appreciate some stranger saying they saw her in a dream that might have been prophetic or at least vaguely psychic.

By the time they emerged from the trail Selena had slowed down and was back to nearly tripping Gladys as she affectionately pushed against her legs. They were greeted by an upbeat Kukui waving at them and the girl quickened her pace to approach him.

“I see you met my assistant,” the professor said as he looked to Gladys who approached slowly, her legs starting to feel sluggish from all the unexpected running.

“Oh, yes,” the girl in white said, brushing a few stray strands of hair from her face, “I guess I didn’t introduce myself. You can call me Lillie.”

Lillie. Gladys would remember it. It took her more than a second to realize she hadn’t introduced herself either and she got out an awkward, “Gladys, I just moved here.”

“I hope you two can get along,” Kukui said cheerfully, patting Lilly on the shoulder, “Gladys’ mom is a good friend of mine.”

Lillie opened her mouth to say something but quickly shut it as a small commotion started nearby. The professor turned to look around and then grinned as he motioned for Gladys to follow him. Nearby a crowd had gathered around an old man in clothing Gladys found to be far too tropical for her tastes.

“Kahuna!” Kakui greeted the man, “What happened man? I thought we were meeting here.”

The old man dismissively waved a hand as he approached, “It is my duty to resolve problems, sometimes things come up. Did something happen? For some reason I thought I saw Tapu Koko in the sky.”

“Oh, yes Kahuna Hala,” Lillie spoke up and explained the situation. The two older men looked surprised and Gladys was sure she was going to get in trouble, that she’d already done something wrong and broken some kind of law or something. She prepared herself for whatever the punishment would be when Kukui burst out in laughter.

“You don’t hear that every day!” he exclaimed, “Our guardian deity came in just to save you!”

“I think this calls for a celebration,” the kahuna said and began to head away, waving to the group of villagers nearby, “I’ll throw something together.”

After he left Kukui turned to Gladys, stroking his chin, “That’s weird though, I thought your mom said you weren’t a trainer.”

“Oh! No, I’m not!” she said quickly as she waved her hands in front of her, “Selena just kind of does her own thing.”

“If you say so,” Kukui laughed and patted her on the head, ruffling her hair. She didn’t like being treated like a little kid but she was also barely over five feet tall even at sixteen years old, she was powerless to stop the man’s ruthless hair ruffling.

“I guess that makes us the same,” Lillie said as she patted her duffel bag and then immediately frowned as she looked around. The cloud of blue and purple floated at her feet and she sighed before crouching down and gently scooping the pokemon back into the bag, “Nebby also just does what it wants. I wish it would stay in the bag though, I don’t know what I’d do if anyone found out about it.”

Gladys wanted to ask just what Nebby was but the kahuna had already returned with a grin on his face and something in his hands. He held it out to her and she slowly took it, turning the electronic device over in her hands.

“Your very own pokedex!” Hala explained, “It’ll automatically record data on pokemon you meet.”

Gladys narrowed her eyes a bit. She had no use for this and she didn’t like the implication that she might have a use for it in the future, she just wanted to go back to her house and unpack her things and sleep some more. She’d make her mom a nice breakfast in the morning and she’d get out her art supplies and maybe paint something nice to commemorate their new life in Alola.

While she was distracted by thoughts of what colors she wanted to paint with something else was handed to her and as she opened the thick cardboard book to see a picture of herself she grimaced. It was a trainer passport. For trainers. She was not a trainer. She tried to tell Kukui and Hala such but neither of them would have it and brushed her off in a way she would find infuriating had she possessed the energy for emotions above annoyance. She huffed and crossed her arms as Hala roughly patted her on the back and told her what a great partner pokemon she had.

With a pat on the shoulder Kukui said, “What an exciting day! Why don’t you go show your mom all this? I’m sure she’ll be just as excited.”

“Doubt it,” Gladys muttered but wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to exit stage left. She threw one last glance at Lillie before taking her leave. She’d think of something to say eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

She didn’t manage to unpack much. She pulled out a canvas and got her paints in order but her brushes were still hidden away somewhere in one of the boxes. She wasn’t sure which one and she didn’t know why she hadn’t thought to just put them with the paints but hindsight was 20/20. She also didn’t manage to make her mom a nice breakfast, there was almost no food in the house since no one had gone shopping yet. In the end she just made a big stack of toast that would be too much for either of them to eat and then sat on a stool waiting for her mom to wake up while Selena munched on a bowl of pokekibble.

She almost fell off her seat when the doorbell rang and then rang again. She clutched her chest and went to answer it, taking deep breaths and trying to calm down before impending human interaction. She mostly expected it to be Kukui again to hound her about pokemon and she was already prepared to tell him to kindly Go Away. When she opened the door to a boy the same height as her with dark skin and a broad smile, she lost what she was going to say.

“Wrong house?” she suggested warily.

“You’re Gladys, right?” he greeted her with more energy than anyone ought to have so early in the day. Right house then, a shame. She still had no idea who he was though and he didn’t seem interested in introducing himself, “Let’s have a pokemon battle!”

She could just lie. She could say she was someone else. It wouldn’t be hard to change her name and get a new ID and move to a different island and start a life as a simple berry farmer who had no business being bothered by kids at 7am on a tuesday.

“Do you wanna come in?” she offered with resignation as she opened the door further and stepped aside, “I’m not a trainer or anything…”

He wasted no time in entering and looking around, gasping when he saw Selena, “Whoa! I’ve never seen a pokemon like that before, that’s gotta be a rare one!”

Finally, her mom came down the stairs still yawning and stretching. She stopped when she saw the source of noise that had undoubtedly awoken her, “Well hello. I see Gladys is already making friends.”

“Yup!” the boy said cheerfully as he reached down to pat Selena on the head, the absol leaning up into his hand, “I’m Hau, Hala sent me to get Gladys for the festival.”

That sounded like something she hadn’t been informed of. She wasn’t big on parties or crowds, especially not when they were unexpected. She needed at least a week’s notice to prepare herself for something like that, and by prepare she meant come up with an excuse to not go. One time she got out of going to a birthday party by telling her friend there was a whole infestation of hoppip in her garden that she, personally, had to vanquish before they overtook the town. She was mostly past telling big lies though, these days she could just put on her most exhausted artist face and people would leave her alone.

“Oh that sounds fun,” her mother said as she grabbed a piece of toast, “I hope you two have a good time.”

And so once more she found herself practically shoved out the door with a stranger. Selena happily pranced along and Hau had a conversation more with the absol than with Gladys as they walked the short road back to the center of Iki town. Apparently he had a popplio, whatever that was, and he was the kahuna’s grandson. Selena chirped and purred as he chatted at her and Gladys silently made a note to thank the pokemon with a big lunch later.

“Oh, but I totally forgot about the battle,” Hau commented as they reached the wooden fences in front of Iki town, “Whoops!”

Gladys spotted the kahuna close by and made the executive decision that perhaps an adult would stop this petulant child from bothering her further. She was here, what more did they want.

“I see Hau found you safe and sound,” Hala said as she approached and the younger boy followed after, “Welcome to the festival. Today we celebrate the great guardian deities for always remaining by our sides. Well, we call it a festival but it’s nothing big.”

 

Gladys peered around at the dozens of people that had gathered and the decorations throughout town; bright banners and displays of dried grass and colorful flowers were hung on walls and a few dog-looking pokemon were dressed in costumes. Large drums, thick wood painted red and leather stretched over their tops, had been hauled out near the platform and it looked like people were also preparing other instruments Gladys definitely couldn’t name. One of them looked like a long wooden clarinet and another was definitely some kind of guitar. Everything here seemed so… she wasn’t sure. Rustic, maybe. Or foreign. She’d lived in a big city in Hoenn, for her a festival meant fried food and parades, not… all this.

This did look like it was everyone that lived in the small town though, that seemed kind of big to her. She couldn’t imagine they did anything bigger than this regularly.

“Right on time!” someone called out. Gladys immediately spotted Kukui approaching with the same stupid grin he had yesterday, Lillie in tow.

“For what?” the blonde girl asked as her bag wiggled with what Gladys could only imagine was a tenacious will to escape.

“A festival for pokemon battling of course!” Kukui answered enthusiastically, looking around at everyone, “We battle in the name of Tapu Koko. It’s a friendly competition to please our guardian.”

That sounded barbaric, but Gladys was happy to see that Lillie looked just as displeased with it as she did. Before anyone could so much as insinuate that she owned a pokemon and therefore needed to participate in an unruly bloodsport she quickly approached the other girl, maybe a little too quickly as Lillie flinched back a bit.

“Nice to see you again, perhaps we can hang out while they…,” Gladys motioned towards Hau’s general direction, “Do all that. The battling, that is? I mean, we won’t be participating anyway.”

Kukui started to say something but stopped when Lillie nodded in agreement and turned to the professor to excuse herself. Gladys was relieved, she didn’t want Selena to end up getting hurt. Even if it was supposed to be friendly, fighting was fighting and seeing pokemon attacking each other was scary. Gladys felt a little childish for being afraid, though, and she’d definitely never admit it to anyone. Most people her age already had a full team of pokemon and several badges, all she had was Selena and an extreme fear of being immolated or crushed or frozen.

The festival was immediately redeemed, however, as Gladys spotted the long tables of food. Large platters of sliced fruit covered in thick sauces were laid out with breads and pastries. Once she had loaded down a paper plate to the point of it nearly caving in on itself and Lillie had acquired a small helping of sweets, they found a bench to sit on away from the main activities. Selena sat patiently at her owner’s feet and waited to be fed while Nebby had managed to escape and was floating nearby with Lillie keeping a close eye on it. Selena seemed interested in the small pokemon as well, her eyes following it back and forth as it explored.

Minutes of awkward silence passed before Lillie finally said something as she nibbled at a cookie, “I’m glad. I mean, pretty much everyone here likes battling pokemon. I just keep worrying someone’s going to try and drag me into a battle and Nebby will get hurt.”

Gladys sighed and tore a piece of bread in half, dropping the bigger half to the ground. Selena wasted no time in practically inhaling it as if she hadn’t already had breakfast.

“Me too,” she said as she watched her pokemon, “As soon as I answered the door that Hau kid asked me to battle him. That’s, like, kind of rude right?”

Lillie covered her mouth as she giggled, “He’s like that with everyone. He’s a good guy though, he’s helped me out a few times now. A while ago… There was this whole horde of rattata, I thought I was done for. But he just started shouting and making all sorts of noise at them and they got so freaked out they ran away.”

Lillie was still smiling as she finished the story, her hands now clasped in her lap. She seemed so out of place here, Gladys thought. The girl seemed more like she belonged in a big house with tall glass windows and maids, or maybe on a cruise ship surrounded by people wearing expensive jewelry. Sitting out here on a bench of warped and sun bleached wood, surrounded by the sounds of a rural island festival and the distant buzz of bug types… It just didn’t seem quite right. But Gladys was sure she looked just as out of place with her nearly translucent white skin that had clearly never seen more than an hour or two of sunlight before today and her paint-spattered black jeans with rough holes in the knees and frays at the edges. They definitely didn’t look like people who should be casually talking.

Selena chirped and sat up to rest her head in Lillie’s lap. The younger girl blinked in surprise but wasted no time in petting the pokemon.

“Sorry about Selena,” Gladys apologized, “She loves to bother people. Her pokeball broke a long time ago and we never managed to get her another one.”

“I don’t mind, she’s really cute. Yes she is,” Lillie said in the ‘talking to an animal that can’t understand what’s being said’ voice, continuing to ruffle the absol’s fur before smoothing it back down, “What a good girl. So smart and brave!”

Gladys couldn’t help but smile. As she watched Lillie play with Selena a distant cry rang out through the air, some sort of pokemon high above, and from the center of town people started to cheer louder. Lillie looked up, blocking the sun from her eyes with one hand as she peered around.

“I guess Tapu Koko really is happy with the festival,” Lillie commented. She continued to watch the sky before finally standing and reaching for her bag. It took a moment to contain Nebby but as soon as she did she turned to Gladys and bowed slightly, “I should probably go check in with the professor but um. I’ll see you again.”

Lillie nodded and left, leaving Gladys to her still mountainous pile of food. Halfway through bringing a slice of melon to her mouth she stopped and narrowed her eyes, cursing under her breath. She forgot to ask about Nebby and she forgot to bring up the whole dream thing ... though she still thought it would definitely not be something Lillie would just accept as a thing that wasn’t weird. Gladys herself thought it was weird.

She shook her head and shoved the fruit into her mouth. Maybe she should go home. She was still tired and she had things to unpack, no one would be that upset if she left. She glanced at the pile of food. She had committed to eating all of this though, she didn’t want to just throw it away. It was her heap of hubris to consume and much like a man with false wings of wax she fully intended to fly right into the sun of overeating.

It was a difficult battle to fight, pitting small girl against ill-placed pastries moistened with fruit juice and now uncomfortably warm melon slices, but after twenty minutes she triumphed. Selena sat quietly at her feet and only occasionally offered what Gladys assumed was praise in the form of quiet yips.

“I did it,” she said to the pokemon, “Are you proud of me?”

“Wow! That was, like, a ton of food! Are you some kind of eating contest champ?”

Gladys fumbled with the paper plate and sent it flying a few feet where it landed in the dirt as her heart skipped a beat. She looked around, shaking and trying to catch her breath, panic still very fresh. How long had Hau been there? He stood a few feet away near one of the many verdant flowered hedges with his hands resting behind his head and a big grin on his face. She slowly breathed in and out, trying to calm down, as she eyed him.

“I. What. What do you want,” she managed to stutter out, heart still racing.

He laughed and she shot him a displeased frown he either ignored or missed entirely as he answered her, “We’re pretty much done with battling, I just wanted to see if you wanted to give it a shot before we’re totally finished.”

“Definitely not,” Gladys firmly said.

“Alright, alright, that’s fine. In that case you wanna join us for the dance? It’s gonna be fun.”

“Kid, you just saw me shove three pounds of fruit in my mouth. What do you think I want to do?” she asked as she stood and went to pick up her plate. She was a lot of things but she wasn’t a litterer.

“Righto sis,” he laughed. 

Gladys flinched and stopped what she was doing to look at him before shaking her head. Just hearing someone call her that still made her feel a little sick. Selena chirped and nudged something into her hand while she was distracted and she looked down to see the absol had picked up her trash for her. She patted the pokemon on the head and rubbed tiredly at her face with her free hand.

After probably too long of a silence she finally said, “I think I’m just gonna go home.”

The walk back home felt like it stretched on forever; the sun was too bright and warm and the birds sitting in the trees were too loud and she could hear the crash of the ocean in the distance - everything here was so unfamiliar to her. Maybe it was just the post-eating exhaustion but just wanted to curl up in her bed, kakuna herself in blankets, and sleep forever.


End file.
